Thursday, 14 August 2014

Things one should know about ITIL

These days, ITIL is a common term. About half a decade back, this term was hardly known to anyone outside the United Kingdom. However, to a lot of IT managers, ITIL is still unknown. There is a lot of buzz about ITIL, bit nothing definitive is there. So, here is a list of highlights about ITIL, a list of things that you should know if you are in IT.

ITIL means Information Technology Infrastructure LibraryThe acronym of the first two letters are pretty obvious. The ITIL is used to develop and execute the service management of IT. It aims for streamlining services, enhancing IT value and reaching the goals easily. At the end, it aims for customer and user satisfaction.

The Organizational Body supporting ITIL is in UK.The ITIL approach was available since the late 80s. It was also published all over the internet and employed by various organizations. The number of these organizations hover near ten thousand. However, nobody ever took much notice.

It is a series of books that give recommendation and guidanceITIL is currently undergoing changes that reflect the requirements of today’s technologies. The books usually deal with the following topics:• What is ITIL• Service Delivery• Service Support• Security Management• Planning to Implement Service Management• Application Management• Small-Scale Implementation• Software Asset ManagementITIL contains content on even more topics.

ITIL stressed on the need for a strong executive sponsor to be successfulIf a company in implementing ITIL, it will be implementing changes in its work culture. This might mean that people will complain about how things are being done differently in the present. Therefore, it is important to have a strong sponsor who will be main motive behind this change. Without such a sponsor, the success will be limited.

It is not project managementITIL is different from project management and therefore the two should not be confused. Project management usually deals with the creation of a certain project and its delivery. ITIL, on the other hand focuses more on how the IT services can be delivered better by the company.

It is not a toolITIL is not a tool that an organization needs to learn to use. A lot of the aspects of ITIL can be implemented using different tools, but they are not compulsory. Things like simple spreadsheets, templates or software tools can help.

Not much content is there on ITILDespite the popularity, ITIL does not have much content. It does have details on the methodology, the details of the processes and templates. However, there are not much details on implementations.

ImplementationsImplementation ITIL can be done in stages. It is not possible to change an entire organization over a short period of time.

You do not have to implement everythingIt is a series of approaches to a problems. It is not mandatory that you should follow all the rules.

You can be certifiedITIL certifications have the following levels: foundations, practitioner and manager.